


Thursday

by El Juno (ElJuno)



Category: The Adventures of Pete & Pete
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-20
Updated: 2007-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:23:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1633745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElJuno/pseuds/El%20Juno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete, Ellen, the unfairness of life, exploding dairy products, poison tree frogs and graduation. Just another normal day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thursday

**Author's Note:**

> Written for evrwrldBB

 

 

It's that time of year again, late June. When the poison tree frogs return to Mrs McGinty's birdbath and all the rest of us start thinking about one word. One large, huge, important word.

**Graduation**.

For some of us, it's easy. My friend Teddy, for instance, we'd never known what he was doing, really, but it involved a lot of sneaking around and once, night vision goggles. And from somewhere, he ended up with a lot of money. He can do whatever he wants, and what he wants is, in his words "to sit on a tropical island surrounded by beautiful girls." And don't we all.

Some of us, it's easy in other ways. Pitstain isn't going anywhere. Again.

Some of us, it's a bit harder. Ellen got her first choice of colleges. And her second. And her fourth. The first would take her to England, but it doesn't matter as much as the fact that her first is going to get her out of here. Her father, while he supports her of course is...not about to loosen the strings that much. Last night? I saw him sitting outside with a handful of admissions letters. Crying.

And for me.

Some of us, it's easy.

Five years ago, Wellsville instituted a Home Economics requirement. The legend says that there was this one kid who got his tongue stuck in a blender and his mother, who was very rich and very worried, gave the school enough money to buy a new gym and five microscopes if they made sure that this never happened again.

And for me...

Did you know you can blow up a blender if you use just the right combination of ice cream and milk while you make a milkshake?

Did you know you can do it five times?

During the final?

And they will hold you back for that?

I do, now.

Very, very well.

And as Mr O'Reilly, our teacher, looked out from under that dripping mix of sweet and disgusting on his glasses and gave me the most disapproving look I've ever seen, I saw Ellen. And Ellen had her hand over her mouth and I knew I'd just messed things up good.

Oh yeah, see, that's the other part. Ellen is my friend. I mean, she's a girl, and she's a friend, but she's not a girlfriend. Not now, at least. But she's a good friend. And, see, we'd all sent our applications in.

Together.

And we were going to go together, until my piece of proof of the explosive power of dairy products and a huge honking F on my report card put an end to that little dream.

"It's not a big deal, Pete" she said, but in her eyes, I could see that it was a lie. But maybe that was just the melting chocolate ice cream talking.

Or maybe I was just hoping it was a lie. I mean, what if she was right? What if it really wasn't a big deal? What if she was actually relieved I might not go with her, even if we ended up wherever? What if they withdraw my admission now that I'm not going to graduate on time?

What if it was a relief? I mean, Ellen is a girl, and Ellen is a friend, but Ellen isn't a girlfriend. But I'm not sure I'm totally happy with that, and I haven't been very secretive about that lately (she let me live down the 'Go Button', because she's amazing, but I know she remembers it) and what if she is? Or what if she doesn't even really want me as a friend anymore?

Bringing up to my dad that I wasn't going to graduate on time was easier than I thought. Well, easier after I managed to get out of working for him. I think it helped that it was such a stupid reason. If I'd done something big or failed something serious, he might have been angry, but this was different. My brother, Pete, wanted the recipe. Well, that was expected, too.

My mother cried. She really wanted to see it happen, I suppose. I think I did too, I wanted to walk down the aisle and get that stupid piece of paper.

And the more I thought about it, the more it occured to me. It wasn't fair. It just plain wasn't fair.

I mean, why should I have to stay back and spend another year here with Pitstain, spend a year away from Ellen just because I couldn't make a milkshake?

It wasn't fair.

And maybe I could fix it.

There was one more day, wasn't there? It was Wednesday. Friday was the end of the term. If I spend Thursday, if I really tried, maybe I could do it and maybe everything would work out okay.

I just had to try.

The next day was like bootcamp, except I suspect that bootcamp doesn't involve as much chocolate ice cream. Time after time, hour after hour, just trying. Just working.

It shouldn't be as hard as this, right? There is no way.

Ellen helped. Ellen always helps, really. She's good like that, she took it like a trooper, even as she was wiping cream off her face for the third time. My brother Pete helped, too. Except he helped in a slightly different way.

"All right, this time aim a bit more to the left. Try to hit the top of the refrigerator."

He had a notepad. Really. He was taking the most detailed notes I've ever seen on the proceedings. If he had spent this much time in class, maybe he'd do a lot better. But I suppose that's not Pete's way. And each time things blew up, we needed to stop for a second as he brought out his tape measure.

Ellen was trying, too. Well, for a while.

"I think you're just cursed, Pete." She said, eventually, wiping her bangs away. And she was right, maybe. I mean, this wasn't normal.

"This isn't normal," I said.

"Our lives aren't normal," She said.

She was right, you know. I don't know when I started expecting things to be normal. They're not.

"But they're still not normal"

"Big deal." She said, and then she laughed and took my hand for a second.

And I grinned. "Okay."

Back to the grind. It took hours. It took so many hours I couldn't believe it.

It took three blenders.

It took duct taping my little brother to a mop and throwing him in the closet.

It took forever.

But eventually. Well, I didn't totally get it, but I'd fallen asleep next to the oven, and I figured I was as good as I was going to get, I suppose.

And then the next day I went in, and Mr O'Brien hid behind his desk as I pressed the button, and I covered my face, and even Ellen hid, slightly, but.

Ten seconds.

This wasn't going to work.

Twenty seconds in, it started to smoke slightly.

Cursed. I knew I was cursed.

Thirty and maybe it was going to work. It only took a minute. It was smoking but it wasn't going off.

Forty. I did it. I knew I did it, now. I could relax, really relax. It was done.

Fifty. Everything was going to work out fine. I could do it.

Fifty-five, and something was rocking but I didn't care, and it was done, and.

At fifty-nine it hit and the force of the explosion was so hard that there was ice cream on the ceiling.

And I was done.

"I can't believe it." I told Ellen as we were leaving. "I can't believe it."

"I know. But it's going to be okay, Pete." Ellen took my hand, then, gently. "They'll understand, just ask them to defer your admission for a year. Tell them the situation."

And I said "Are you sure."

And she said. "I'm sure."

And I said. "But I wanted to go with you."

Ellen looked at me oddly. "What?"

"I wanted to go with you. I wanted to start with you."

"Pete, please tell me that's not what this was about."

"It's not what this is about. I wanted to graduate. But it didn't help."

"But it's only a semester" She said.

And I said "Maybe it'll be a year"

And she said "Well, then, it'll be a year."

And I said "It'll be a **year**."

And then. "Pete", she said "It's only a year"

And then she leaned over towards me.

It wasn't our first kiss, but it was our first for a while, and I kind of think I'd started to think the earlier ones had been dreams or nothing or forgotten. Whatever. Anyway, there's this entire set of things that are supposed to be in a kiss. You know, the birds sing and the bells ring and the earth moves and the tree frogs chirp just right. And none of those happened, but it was Ellen, and it was Ellen with her lips against my lips and then it was Ellen kissing me deeper and I had my arms around her.

And then she pulled away and it was Ellen. And she was laughing. "See?" She said. "It'll be okay."

"It's only a year." I said.

And Ellen took off down the path and I ran after her, and we were both laughing. And you know, she was right. And maybe it wasn't the perfect story, maybe it wasn't going to work out like I expected, maybe I need to learn to make a chocolate milkshake again and again and again and maybe things are always going to explode in my face, but she's right. And not everything is better, but she's really right, I think.

And it's only a year.

And we've got the summer, and maybe next time we'll get to have that kiss as we throw our caps and maybe, just maybe, we'll have forever.

Yeah, I think I'd like that.

 


End file.
